Egg Muffins

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Egg Muffins are great.  More importantly outside of being awesome and tasty, they make people want to measure everything happy in their warm place.  Basically, egg muffins, like soup, is an equation.

Take the ones pictured for instance, to make twelve of them.

Ingredients

  1.  12 eggs, beaten till liquid and slightly frothy, the main thing is you don’t want anything to make them harder to pour
  2. 4 ounces of diced orange pepper, measured with a scale
  3. 2 cups cooked spinach (yields far less)
  4. 4 ounces of Feta cheese, measured with a scale
  5. KEEP EVERYTHING SEPARATE

Look at them, do you see anything in common.  Yup they are divisible easily into 12.  For example, each muffin will consist of 1 egg, 1/3 ounce diced orange pepper, 4 ounces of uncooked spinach, and 1/3 feta cheese.  But it would be a superb pain in the but to make that one muffin, so you batch cook.

Recipe (there will be some things in this that look weird)

  1.  Spray a muffin pan with non-stick spray.  Don’t worry it won’t touch your food, it’s for heat conductivity.
  2.  Put a muffin cup in each space.  I prefer to get the pretty awesome aluminum foil ones like these so that the heat conducts well and you get some crunchy edges.  Sounds weird, but hey it’s my recipe.
  3. Pour roughly 1/12 of your egg mix into the cups.  You may have to practice to get it right.  I say add a little bit at the beginning, you can always go back.
  4. Add 1/3 ounce diced turkey, 1/3 feta cheese and about , 1/12 of the spinach.  The spinach is the weird one, I actually spread it out on a cutting board after its cooked and divide it into 12 piles.  You may not be this anal or weird about it, but I am.   I suggest adding the cheese last (I should have said that earlier).
  5. Bake in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes or so.
  6. Take out and let rest until you can easily get the cups out without burning yourself, about 20 minutes
  7. Before packaging them, two things:  remove the cups (don’t reuse them) and let them come to room temperature before attempting to store them.  They become a condensation making mess in the container they are in if you put them in there too hot.

These are good and pretty easy to make.  1 of them goes well with a bunch of veggies, 2 of them is a meal (with a bunch of veggies on the side).  They travel well, reheat well and are quite tasty.

Now, you can substitute anything in these.  I like 2 veggies with feta, or 1 veggie and turkey with cheddar, the point is you can do whatever you want with them.  They are quite versatile.

Creole Shrimp and “Rice”

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This is quite the uncomplicated recipe, but it ends up being awesome due to a simple trick of resting it.

Ingredients

  1. 20 ounces of raw and peeled jumbo shrimp
  2. 1 medium green pepper chopped
  3. 1 medium onion chopped
  4. 3 8″ stalks of celery chopped
  5. 1 tablespoon of coconut oil
  6. 2 tablespoons dried lemon peel
  7. 1 large cauliflower, riced
  8. 2 tablespoons salt, yes it seems like a lot, but wait for it
  9. 2 tablespoons minced garlic
  10. 1 tablespoon “Penzey’s Cajun” spice mix.  (Now, we use pretty much only stuff from Penzey’s, but I assume that any Cajun spice would work for this.  You can get this particular spice here.  It’s delightful.  We do not receive any compensation for hawking their stuff by the way.)

Recipe

  1. Take the onion, pepper, and celery and put in a skillet with the salt and oil.  Sweat this on medium heat until the onions are translucent, should take about 10 minutes or so.  (This is why you are using so much salt, when you cook salt without water, the lack of alkilinity in the mixture causes the salt to break down into its component minerals, thus seems less salty.)
  2. Add the lemon peel and garlic at this point and turn to medium high heat.
  3. Add the shrimp and remaining spices.  Give a couple of good tosses to coat it all and cover for about 2 minutes.  Repeat this process until the stuff is all cooked through, mainly the shrimp.
  4. Remove all of this from the pan and put into a bowl or dish and cover with foil for about 15 minutes.  Everything should come down to room temperature.  This is a good secret in a lot of shrimp cooking.  It will finish cooking and not be rubbery.
  5. While that is happening, take the entire riced cauliflower and put in the same skillet (hope you used a big enough one, if not you have an extra pan to wash, huh.) Increase the heat to high stirring often, the goal is to heat the cauliflower without losing the crunch and without it becoming soggy, this should not really take more than 5 or so minutes.
  6. Take of the heat and combine the shrimp mixture with the cauliflower.
  7. Now, you have two choices and they depend upon how big your dish and skillet are.  I did not mix it all together in the skillet because I had a really big bowl.  I mixed it in that.  If your skillet is big enough, you can mix it there.

We made this for a dinner for a couple of friends and it was a big hit.  The amazing thing about it is that it needs 2 tablespoons of oil and 20 ounces of shrimp and amply fed 5 people (counting myself twice).  That means that each person took in 1/2 tablespoon of oil, 4-5 ounces of shrimp, and 2-2.5 cups of veggies here.  That’s awesome.  And I do not want to hear about how it’s not “Creole” it’s Cajun blah blah blah.  There is citrus and slight caramelization on the veggies, not cajun things.  Don’t give me any crap people   🙂  Please try it out and let me know what you think of it.

Southwest Chicken Chili

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This is a milder and tangier chili recipe meant to be better for summer.  I find that a robust chili is better in the winter, this one feels more summery to me.

Ingredients:

  1.  16 ounce of chicken breasts cooked off and set aside to rest completely (reserve any liquid that came off)
  2. 3 cans of diced tomatoes washed and drained
  3. 2 cans of light red kidney beans, washed and drained.
  4. 3 medium onions chopped into 1/2 inch chunks
  5. 6 cloves of garlic, minced
  6. 10-12 mini peppers sliced into 1/4 slices
  7. 1 teaspoon of the following:  celery seed, coriander, cumin, white pepper, lemon peel
  8. 1 tablespoon of the following:  paprika, dried chives, black pepper
  9. 2 tablespoons of the following:  tomato paste, salt, lime juice
  10. 3 cups of veggie broth
  11. 1 cup of water

Recipe:

  1.  Put all the veggies in the pot:  onions, tomatoes, peppers, garlic.  Sweat for about 10 minutes on medium heat, stirring often.  If you hear sizzling, turn your heat down a little.
  2. Add the liquid:  veggie broth, water, bring to a boil over medium high heat.  Cover to speed up the process.
  3. When boiling, add the beans and the chicken liquid (yummy, chicken liquid, let’s call it stock instead).
  4. Uncover and keep uncovered until boiling again.  Add the chicken and spices into the liquid and stir vigorously to get the paste all mixed in.
  5. Reduce heat to low, cover and let cook like this for about 30 minutes or so, stirring every so often to keep it from sticking, but not too often as you don’t want to lose your heat.
  6. Turn off the heat and let come to above room temperature.  We use a dutch oven for most soups so it keeps heat for a long time.  I let it sit for about 4 hours, then it’s cool enough to eat.  You know your cookware, so you should do it how you see fit.
  7. I am notorious for undersalting my food, this one is good for me, but you may want more salt in yours.  Do as you wish.

Brussels Sprouts Awesome

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This is the best damn brussels sprouts recipe that I have ever come up with.  It’s awesome.  I look at the picture and really just want to go make it again.

Ingredients:

1.  12oz shredded brussels sprouts

2.  4oz of chopped chicken or chopped turkey

3.  1/4 cup of pine nuts, untoasted is best

4.  2oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese (white is what I used)

5.  1 teaspoon of olive oil

Recipe:

1.  Fry up the lean ham and pull out of pan.

2.  Put pine nuts in pan with olive oil and cover for about 5 minutes, shaking the pan often to keep them moving.  The idea is to toast them so that you can get as much flavor out of them as possible.

3.  Add the brussels sprouts and some salt

4.  Cook the brussels sprouts until just wilty, not too much or they will get sulfurous and gross

5.  Take off heat and add the lean ham and toss

6.  Put onto two plates and top with 1oz of shredded cheddar cheese each serving.

This is designed to be a two serving dish.  Each serving will contain approximately 3 ounces of protein,  1.5 cups of vegetables.  Enjoy.

More Smoothies

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Emily has been creating some very  interesting and good combinations for more smoothies.  Pictures are unnecessary as they end up either green, yellow or orangish with small specks in them.  No one needs a picture of that.

Fruit & Spinach Smoothie

1.  1/2 a navel orange, peeled

2.  1/2 a medium banana, peeled

3.  1 cup of spinach

4.  2 ounces of aloe vera juice

5.  3/4 cup of almond milk

For best results, freeze your oranges first.

Mega Veg Smoothie

1.  1-1/2 cups of spinach

2.  2 ounces of aloe vera juice

3.  3 medium celery stalks

4.  1/2 apple peeled

5.  2 tablespoons of date paste

6.  1/2 cucumber seeded and peeled

7.  1/2 cup coconut milk

Sometimes I Miss Florida Smoothie

1.  1 whole orange peeled and chunked

2.  1 cup pineapple peeled and chunked

3.  1 cup of coconut milk

4.  1/2 tablespoon ground ginger

5.  1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

6.  1/2 banana peeled

7.  1 lime peeled and wedged

For best results, freeze the oranges, limes and pineapples

Pork Fried Cauliflower “Rice”

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This one allows me to have chinese food.  The flavor profile is dead on, with 0 net carbs and lots of protein and vegetables.  The most unhealthy thing in this dish is the sesame oil and maybe the pork, depending upon how you feel about swine.

Ingredients:

1.  1 whole cauliflower, riced.  What this means is you take, leaving it raw, and put it into a food processor or grater and blitz it.  It creates a substance that is a little smaller than white rice but still have some body.  It is important to leave it raw, otherwise you will make paste, which is another blog post.

2.  2 medium onions, chopped as big or small as you like

3.  16 ounces of pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut into 1″ squares/chunks.

4.  1 cup of frozen peas.

5.  1 tablespoon of sesame oil

6.  2 tablespoons of minced garlic

7.  1 teaspoon of ground ginger

8.  1 teaspoon of dried basil

9.  4 tablespoons of soy sauce (low sodium is a good idea)

10.  2 eggs, lightly beaten

Recipe:

1.  In large skillet or wok, put the wok with 1/2 of the sesame oil over high heat.

2.  When the pork is about 1/2 cooked, add the onion and garlic with the rest of the sesame oil.

3.  When cooked through, add the peas.

4.  When heated through, push to one side and add the lightly beaten egg and scramble,

5.  When eggs are scrambled, add the whole mixture together and add all the spices, soy sauce and cauliflower rice.

6.  Stirring near constantly, move the entire mix around until most of the soy sauce either absorbs or evaporates which should only take about 30-40 seconds.  If there is still a bunch of liquid, then keep going till it is gone.

This should serve 4 people.  Or as usual, two people with two leftovers.  This dish is pretty awesome and allows for a chinese craving to be met without a lot of the MSG and extra calories.

Southwest Black Bean Garden Salad

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This is an old recipe from us that fit right into our new diet plan:

Black Bean Salad

2oz drained black beans

1/2 cup peeled and julienned Jicama

1-1/2 cups Washed Spinach Leaves

1/2 cup pico de gallo (either look this up or email me for a recipe)

1 whole lime (cut into 4 wedges)

1/3 cup either green or red salsa (we used Trader Jose’s)

Here is the finished product:

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When squeezed over the salad, the limes add enough acid to make the tomatoes taste brighter.  Plus, the added liquid makes the salsa go much further.  This recipe is raw, so thoroughly wash all your ingredients.  At the end of the day, this uses about 3-1/2 cups of veggies and has 2oz of protein.  Enjoy!